before i write about my response to the claim that our generation is becoming more lonely with a looser definition of what a "friend" is and where our "close friends," the people we share our important information and secrets with are dwindling in numbers, i will expound upon my credentials. i have been using instant messaging on aim since 6th grade (10 yrs ago), and i am still using the same screen name. i had the experience of using icq and the multi-chat functions that allowed me to communicate with users from countries all-over europe synchronously. i have played on muds in 7th grade, i've connected to servers using tcp/ip since i was 12, i've sent emails while watching sailor moon, and i'm a member of facebook, myspace, youtube, and imeem. although i've only had a cell phone since 2005, i did play mmo-rpgs since i was 13, 8 yrs before world of warcraft.
now that i have explained my proficiency in online technologies, i want to explain that although having a looser definition of what a friend is, i feel that it does not take away from "real-life" experiences. just because we have so many friends online, doesn't mean that all friends in "real-life" have to be some sort of uber-friend where you can always confide in them and trust them to always be with you. we treat friends in real-life loosely and we treat friends online even looser, at least that's what it always had been since i've started using the internet. friends are just as important as they always were, at least thats what the inebriated anthropologist says.
oh, and i also had the experience of having my first girlfriend break up with me over email and subsequent im conversations!
1 comment:
You've had the same screen name since 6th grade??? Whoa that's a long time! I shared my first screenname with my brother... it was "dirss" which stood for "dirty sweatsocks." It really is crazy to look back and think about how much our lives have been "online." One of my friends likes to quip that she and her laptop are "attached at the hip." I think she even has a name for her laptop. I bet many of us share the same sentiment... I'm a member of Facebook, Myspace (don't use), Youtube, Livejournal (don't use), Xanga (don't use), Yahoo, etc... I have created and edited Wikipedia articles, I have frequented Irish dance message boards, I have participated in Yahoo Answers, I play fantasy football. Through these means, I create an online identity that is and is not myself. I wonder if the loneliness some are finding has to do with how close the online and real-life identities are related. For instance, if you mainly use new media to interact with people you know in real life, you might keep closer relationships than if you had, say, a whole bunch of ppl you "know" online and different ppl who know you in person?
I agree that friends are just as important as they always were. I think that new media can facilitate contact and create/keep close relationships, as long as you are seeing the person outside the IM context occasionally.
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